sneered at him and exulted in his defeat. That sneer represents
the common English attitude towards the Burgoyne type. Every
instance in which the critical genius is defeated, and the stupid
genius (for both temperaments have their genius) "muddles through
all right," is popular in England. But Burgoyne's failure was not
the work of his own temperament, but of the stupid temperament.
What man could do under the circumstances he did, and did
handsomely and loftily. He fell, and his ideal empire was
dismembered, not through his own misconduct, but because Sir
George Germain overestimated the importance of his Kentish
holiday, and underestimated the difficulty of conquering those
remote and inferior creatures, the colonists. And King George and
the rest of the nation agreed, on the whole, with Germain. It is
a significant point that in America, where Burgoyne was an enemy
and an invader, he was admired and praised. The climate there is
no doubt more favorable to intellectual vivacity.

I have described Burgoyne's temperament as rather histrionic; and
the reader will have observed that the Burgoyne of the Devil's
Disciple is a man who plays his part in life, and makes all its
points, in the manner of a born high comedian. If he had been
killed at Saratoga, with all his comedies unwritten, and his plan
for turning As You Like It into a Beggar's Opera unconceived, I
should still have painted the same picture of him on the strength
of his reply to the articles of capitulation proposed to him by
his American conqueror General Gates. Here they are:

PROPOSITION.

1. General Burgoyne's army being reduced by repeated defeats, by